Rory McIlroy struggled around TPC Sawgrass on day two of The Players Championship on Friday.
McIlroy opened up at the Players Championship on Thursday with a round of two-over-par 74 and he followed that up with a 71 on day two.
The 36-year-old has been out of sorts at TPC Sawgrass, having entered the week with no preparation whatsoever following the back injury that he sustained at Bay Hill six days ago.
McIlroy admitted to being ‘unbelievably rusty’ at The Players on day one and it seemed to be much of the same story on Friday.
The 2025 Masters champion has been off the boil in pretty much every department of his game this week.
McIlroy will surely chalk this week at The Players up as a one-off, due to the issues he had with his back heading into the tournament.
What Rory McIlroy planned to do if he missed the cut at The Players Championship
While McIlroy isn’t guaranteed to make the cut at The Players, he has a very good chance of doing so.
McIlroy was asked if he felt any stress about potentially missing the cut on the back nine.
“Bones asked me walking down the 9th hole there, my last hole, ‘what’s your plan after this for like the next few weeks’, and I said, ‘Bones, I’ll tell you after this hole’,“ McIlroy joked.
“There’s a lot riding on this golf hole. So I mean, obviously I wanted to make the cut, of course. I mean, yeah, of course you want to be here for the weekend.“
He was then asked how important it was for him to get inside the cut-line at Sawgrass.
“I think it does wound your pride,“ McIlroy said.
“I think, I don’t know, I have 280-odd starts on the PGA TOUR and I’ve missed maybe less than 30 cuts. So, yeah, I’m proud of that.
“But then in golf, as everyone knows, you have to sort of blow it off and move on to the next thing.
“But if I had missed the cut I probably would have added an event going into the Masters, so hopefully I’m here for the weekend and I don’t have to do that.“
Rory McIlroy’s stats from day two of The Players
McIlroy’s iron play and putting really let him down on day two of The Players.
He drove the ball decently well, but he was battling all day to hang around par.
He was ranked seventh in strokes gained off the tee, but he performed poorly in all of the other three key statistical categories.
McIlroy was ranked in 97th strokes gained approach, 31st in strokes gained around the green and 68th in strokes gained putting.
With stats like those, it’s little wonder why McIlroy has struggled so far this week at The Players Championship.
In fairness to him, though, heading into The Players having played zero practice rounds at TPC Sawgrass was hardly ideal preparation.
It’s worth noting that he barely hit any golf shots at all between his second round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and when he teed off on Thursday in Ponte Vedra Beach.
This hasn’t been McIlroy’s week, but plenty of good times still lie ahead for him.